The Resistance to Change-Beliefs Scale: Validation of a New Measure of Conservative Ideology

Katherine White, Dakota Kinney, Rose H. Danek, Brandt A. Smith, Charles Harben

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2019 · 43 citations · 26 references

Concepts

Abstract

The motivated social cognition (MSC) model of conservative ideology posits there are two core facets of conservative political ideology-endorsement of hierarchies and resistance to change. The present research tested the validity and reliability of a scale developed to measure resistance to change. Five studies support the validity, reliability, and factor structure of the Resistance to Change-Beliefs (RC-B) scale. Scores on the RC-B scale correlated with social and cognitive motivations as well as self-identified conservatism. RC-B also predicted more conservative stances on political issues and factor analyses supported the predicted internal structure of the RC-B scale. This provides the field with a validated instrument that avoids problems inherent in previous measures, can be used to test predictions from the MSC model, and has potential applications beyond political psychology.

References

26